Brewer redefined 'gross misconduct' with ouster

Based on some of the challenges she has had with public speaking, Gov. Jan Brewer is not generally considered to be an expert in grammar, syntax or lexicography.

But apparently she is.

Just the other day, Brewer and her buddies at the Legislature came up with a whole new definition for "gross misconduct." Sort of a reverse definition.

The "Brew Crew" didn't like the idea that the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission was acting in a way that was actually independent, so they decided to remove the commission's chairwoman, Colleen Mathis.

Mathis, an independent, was appointed to the five-member group that also includes two Republicans and two Democrats. She was removed for what Brewer and her browbeating blowhards at the Legislature described as "gross misconduct," which the governor apparently defines as "doing one's job."

Senate President and de facto governor Russell Pearce added, "It's kind of like when one of the (U.S.) Supreme Court judges said they may not be able to define pornography, 'but I know it when I see it.' "

Pearce is right. Based on the tens of thousands of dollars in tickets and trips he took as part of the Fiesta Bowl scandal, I'd guess that he brings considerable expertise to this subject.

I spoke this week to attorney Paul Charlton, who is taking Mathis' fight to remain on the commission to the Arizona Supreme Court.

"If the governor and Legislature are able to replace Ms. Mathis, then their message to the successor is absolutely clear: March in lockstep with Republicans or we will do the same to you," Charlton said. "Instead of an Independent Redistricting Commission it becomes a Republican Redistricting Commission."

Proposition 106, which Arizona voters approved in 2000, was designed to take politics out of the business of drawing election maps, something we do every 10 years after a census.

"What the Republicans have done is deliver to the Democrats a perfect lawsuit," Charlton said. "If the new commissioner gets appointed and the maps aren't drawn to the Democrats' liking, the Democrats will go to the courts. They'll say that the maps aren't fair because this new commissioner knew what would happen to him if he didn't go along with what Republicans wanted."

There are broader implications as well.

"Ms. Mathis is a smart, highly qualified, competent person," Charlton said. "She is exactly the type of person that Arizona needs to work on a project that is very important and somewhat thankless. Neither side is ever completely satisfied with what this commission does. Where will the state find people of high quality to take difficult jobs like this in the future if they are going to be treated like this?"

In the dictionary being rewritten by Brewer and the wrong-way lexicographers in the Legislature, "people of high quality" would be defined as "yes-men." It's just another way the governor and her pals are redefining the word "competence."